Mobile devices, such as smart phones and tablets, have become ubiquitous. According to recent statistics, people already spent more time on the Internet using their mobile apps than on traditional desktop computers. Since these mobile devices connect to the Internet using wireless networks, such as Wi-Fi and 3G/4G connections, they have created an unprecedented strain on the wireless infrastructure that has already fell far behind. Users tend to experiences low mobile Internet in many places such as at a coffee shop, at an airport, on a train, or at a conference. The current wireless network speed cannot keep up with the demand. According to recent statistics, the average Wi-Fi and cellular speed in the US is below 4.8 and 3.7 Mbps, respectively. This speed is not enough to stream 720p videos, let alone full HD 1080p or quad HD videos that the consumers desire as their smartphones are now equipped with these high-resolution screens. Furthermore, gap between the demand and supply of cellular wireless bandwidth is only going to increase in the next years. For instance, it is predicted that 70% of World's population will have a smart phone and 60% of all mobile data traffic will be from online video by 2020. According to the latest Mobile Data Forecast by Cisco's Visual Networking Index, it is estimated that by 2019, the mobile speed will grow only 2 times while the demand for mobile data will grow 10 times.
Insufficient bandwidth results in poor user experience, plagued by low definition content, video stalling, etc. This, in turn, translates to billions of loss in revenue due to reduced user engagement. For example, Conviva reported that global premium content brands lost $2.16 billion of revenue in 2012 due to poor quality video streams and are expected to miss out on an astounding $20 billion through 2017 if they do not fix the video streaming quality problems. Wi-Fi is increasingly used by mobile users for bandwidth-intensive applications, for both speed and cost purposes, and also by cellular operators to offload their traffic. However, Wi-Fi alone is not sufficient since its coverage is not as ubiquitous as cellular, and most Wi-Fi networks in public spaces are typically congested. Hence, there is a need to resolve the problem of slow mobile Internet speed.
Any feature or combination of features described herein are included within the scope of the present invention provided that the features included in any such combination are not mutually inconsistent as will be apparent from the context, this specification, and the knowledge of one of ordinary skill in the art. Additional advantages and aspects of the present invention are apparent in the following detailed description and claims.